Botanical extracts are used in a variety of industries, including food, flavorings, medicine, cosmetics, and several industrial machinery processes such as tire manufacturing. The botanical extraction industry has been growing at an increasing rate in recent years, and as an industry generates approximately $350 billion in global annual dollars.
There are two general methods used for botanical extraction: steam distilling and solvent extraction. Steam distilling generally follows the same general steps. To start the process, steam is boiled and then pumped through a container filled with plant matter. The container is typically constructed in such a way that the steam is able to pass through the plant matter contained therein. The steam acts to separate the botanical oils from the plant matter. The light, watery oils known as mono terpenes, or essential oils, are entrained in the steam. The oil infused steam then passes through a condenser. The cooled condenser liquefies the steam infused oil and sends the product to a receiver vessel. Once in the receiver vessel, the oils separate into two distinct classes; those that are water soluble and those that are not. The non-soluble oils float on top of the water, whereas the soluble oils cause the water they are infused in to take on a milky appearance. This water infused with soluble oils is known as hydrosol.
Solvent extractions may be done in a multitude of ways. Prior to solvent extraction, oil seeds are often pressed so as to remove the maximum amount of oil possible. Among the methods of solvent extraction are combinations of heat, pressure, stirring, vacuum, and distilling. One of the most common forms of solvent extraction treats the oil-containing material with a low boiler solvent. When the solvent then begins to boil and treats the oil-containing material, the vapor that results contains a large amount of oil constituents. The extraction unit is capable of capturing this vapor product and condensing it into a liquid. As a preferred solvent will have a much lower boiling point than that of the extract, the solvent is able to re-vaporize and continue the distillation cycle, while the extract remains capture by the unit.
The need for this invention arises from the observation that steam distilling only recovers light oils, while leaving behind other compounds such as resins, fats, alkaloids and chlorophyll. Recovering these compounds requires moving the hot, moist plant material to a solvent extractor for re-extraction. Such a process is neither same nor efficient. Solvent extractions, on the other hand, will generally extract everything, including mono terpenes. However, distilling the solvent back out of the extract results in the mono terpenes distilling off with the solvent and subsequently being lost.
There currently exists a need for a unit that is able to perform the combination of steam distilling and solvent extraction in one system. Such a unit would be able to capture all of the desired botanical products, while eliminating the risk of losing any excess mono terpenes or damaging any product during transportation between units.